Marine tank must be lidless?

[Trace]

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a marine tank, but am keen to get back into the hobby.

I now live in a country town, so went to the only fish store in the region that keeps marine, and was told that these days you don’t have marine tanks with lids, they need to open topped. I was a bit surprised as my previous tanks were all enclosed. Not to mention the fact I now have very large cats so an open topped tank it out of the question, it has to be very solid.

Is this correct, tanks are only open topped now? I wanted to start again with a nano of corals only.

[colg]

Hi Trace,

No they don't have to be open topped. Here are a few reasons why most are these days:
- Better light penetration
- much improved O2 transfer
- less heat build up.

There are more positives to open tops than negatives. You may find that a mesh cover would provide adequate protection from your cats if you choose the right material. There are numerous aluminum mesh options available that might work? if you have to go glass lids i wouldn't be too concerned, just keep the above points in mind.

Cheers,
Col

[Trace]

Thanks, Col.

Would any type of mesh lid cope with 7kg of cat possibly sitting on it?

[colg]

7kg of cat possibly sitting on it?

Probably not. At least not without restricting light.

[NiCd]

There are some custom done ones from the states that I would suggest would be fine with 7kg, they seem very sturdy from my playing around with one, but they are very pricey to begin with and then shipping kills you again.

I am not in a position to do a search for them at the moment but Sam (Parkers reef) has a video of his on his youtube channel